TM5 Held Its 11th Annual Meeting
- Promotion of Further International Cooperation as TM5 Celebrates its 10th Anniversary -

November 14, 2022

The 11th Annual Meeting of The Five Trademark Offices (TM5) was held in Brussels, Belgium from October 24th to 26th 2022. TM5 offices are responsible for trademarks in Japan, the United States, Europe, China, and Korea. Mr. Nomura, Director-General of the Trademark and Customer Relations Department at the Japan Patent Office (JPO), attended the meeting along with other JPO officials. (The China National Intellectual Property Administration, CNIPA, participated online.)

This Annual Meeting was a memorable one, since TM5 was celebrating its 10th anniversary. Video messages were first delivered from heads of TM5 offices including JPO Commissioner Hamano, and remarks were then given by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Director General Tang. In addition, TM5 offices adopted agenda items on the occasion of the 10th anniversary, including the outline of future goals stated within the “TM5 Joint Vision Statement at the 10th Anniversary of the Cooperation”. Herein, they reaffirmed their respective commitment to improving trademark systems, harmonizing trademark practices, and continuing to work with broader user groups.

At the meeting, TM5 offices confirmed the results and discussed the way forward regarding 16 cooperative projects and one newly proposed project. These include the "Bad Faith Trademark Project*1", "IT support for Trademark Examination Project*2", and “User Involvement Project*3”, which are being led by the JPO. With regard to projects being overseen by the JPO, TM5 offices agreed to publish an upgraded version of the "Bad Faith Trademark Project" report on bad-faith trademark filings, and a digest version of the case examples. They also agreed to conduct regular awareness seminars to disseminate the results of TM5 initiatives, and to conduct the next seminar in the Philippines in February of next year.

In addition, the proposal to hold an expert meeting next year in addition to this year on the "IT support for Trademark Examination Project" was endorsed by all offices.

Furthermore, regarding the "User Involvement Project", TM5 agreed to hold the next TM5 Joint Workshop during the INTA (International Trademark Association) Annual Meeting in May 2023, and also agreed that the theme of the workshop would be ”Proving Use of Trademarks in TM5 Offices”.

The TM5 User Session was held on the final day of the meeting for user representatives from industry groups and agent organizations. At the beginning of the meeting, remarks were given by Kerstin Jorna, Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs of the European Commission. As host organization, the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) gave a summary of the Annual Meeting, and published the booklet commemorating the 10th anniversary. In addition, TM5 offices promoted their latest measures. A user representative also made a presentation on the “New technologies impact on IP offices and business”, and TM5 exchanged opinions with users through discussions on TM5 projects and activities.

TM5 offices reached a consensus that the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) would host next year's TM5 Meeting.

The JPO will continue to contribute promote the appropriate protection and utilization of trademark rights through TM5 initiatives.

 

• *1: TM5 Offices aim to exchange information on their respective laws, regulations and operational practices with regard to bad faith trademark filings, as well as to provide users with information in this regard.
• *2: The initial objective of the project was to exchange information to promote the development of image searches that can be used for figurative trademark examinations by each office on their own. Later, in light of developments in IT technology, the scope of the project was expanded to include all IT systems that would contribute to more efficient examinations.
• *3: Project led jointly with the EUIPO. The JPO leads TM5 joint workshops in cooperation with the INTA to disseminate information to users.

 

Video message from Commissioner Hamano

Representatives from TM5 offices and WIPO who participated in the Annual Meeting
From left: Director-General Nomura, Executive Director Archambeau (EUIPO), Director General Tan (WIPO), and Commissioner for Trademarks Gooder (United States Patent and Trademark Office, USPTO), who attended the meeting in person at the venue in Brussels

Participants from TM5 Offices and WIPO who attended the meeting in person at the venue in Brussels
(Photos: EUIPO/Nicolas Economou)

User session

Representatives from Japan who participated in the user session (three in the center of the photo)

 

Links

• The Five Trademark Offices (TM5)
• TM5 Website “Bad faith Trademark” (External link)
• TM5 Website “Image Search” (External link)
• TM5 Website “User Involvement” (External link)

[Last updated 14 November 2022]